Virgil's Optimism In The Aeneid

Ebenezer Ackon Irrespective of the debate whether Virgil’s poet is optimistic or pessimistic, many think Vergil both expresses shows the Romans' hope for the peace of a Golden Age under Augustus and their fear that this hope might be illusory. Arguably, optimism and pessimism varies depending on the location in the poem. There were numbers of prophecies by Virgil about the Romans future, and where Augustus Caesar brought back the golden age of peace and justice. There were many prophesies in Virgil’s book but the prominent and noteworthy one I can recall was the prophesy of Jupiter to Venus (book 1. 260 – 270) and the parades of the Roman heroes who Anchises identified for Aeneas in the underworld; “come now: I will set out in words the whole sequence of glory that follows, Darden sons in the future illustrious spirits, descendants, soul that remain to be born of Italian peoples

756 – 759) . This was followed by other instructions that will help Aeneas in locating and finding the founding site of Rome, which I see it to be very optimistic because it leads to glorious roman empire. Anchises words help to create a sense of optimism in the inevitability of Aeneas’ realization of his fate, although none of his predictions here concerns Aeneas; but rather, his entire prophecy concerns the descendants of Aeneas leading all the way up to noted figures in the contemporary Rome of Vergil. In book six, Sybil got possessed by god Apollo and prophesied to Aeneas that, they will fight a war in Italy to secure their territory which is going to be tough, Aeneas believed Sybil and decided to visit his father in the underworld to know the truth about his lineage. In order to create the gap between divine knowledge and mortal understanding, prophetic scenes typically have some sort of divine claim that legitimates the prophetic message. In Greek, mortals in particular should take prophesies serious as it gives them guidance and protection about what